Taigmair; History
This is a brief history of the Taigmair: ' The Taigmair region of the world has long been inhabited by humanity. It once was the most powerful nation in the northern circle. However like all great nations its fall was as meteroic as its rise. 'Pre history: The first settling in the region was by Althusthal people and although very little is known about them it is evident that while few in number they were advanced enough to have simple metal working knowledge. Even now b ronze artifacts are recovered occasionally bearing the hallmark dotted wave pattern that these early settlers favoured. Althusthal settlers are known to have reached as far north as Tilgashot where a grand burian cairn was identified as belonging to an Althusthal cheiftan. The grave goods that were recovered included vases in the typical style, a horse shaped amulet, several stamped discs of various soft metals and a bronze axe head with an intricately worked pattern of a boat on the flat of the head. Its not known exactly why the Althusthal people disappeared but it is expected that it was because of a series of hard winters destroying a culture more suited to less harsh conditions. Settlers in the Taigmair didn't occur again until the first Northmen made the region their home. This is estimated to be as many as 400 years after the Althusthal peoples had disappeared and is indicative of how harsh the conditions in the Taig were at that point in time. Slowly the short ice age came to a close and normal life returned to the Taig. 'Civilisation in the Taig': The first civilsation we truely know about in the Taigmair was the Northman civilsation of Dairn. It is said that Dairn was located on the area of Taig now known as Aigshot, it was not however a religious city as Aigshot is now! Dairn was a thriving trade based civilisation which over the course of many hard winters had forced its neighbouring tribes into submission and assimilated their land into its own. This lead them to holding much of the coast from Veian river all the way up to where modern day Haltags town stands. Their level of advancement was such that soon they errected stone border guardians with inscribed warnings on them letting all who passed them know they were entering the Dairnholt. Unfortunately for this particularly interesting civilisation its trading had caused it to become a prize target for forces less interested in making a steady profit and more intersted in making a quick buck. It's assumed that over the course of a single month, the civilisation of Dairn met its downfall and with it took much of the prowess of the Northman with it. Raiders from across the sea came in ships painted black their faces grey and their hair white. The capital of the Dairnholt was sacked, its population put to the sword and its wealth taken. Many will naturally assume this to be an action of the Drussi, it was infact blamed on them for many many years and is often considered to be where the northern distrust of all Aelfin come from. However it appears that no Drussi bones or atrifacts have never been recovered from the site of Dairn and that infact the only items that have since been found correspond more to the cultures of the seafairing all be it much less known Falicca culture of plainsmen who inhabit the now peaceful southern regions of this continental shelf. 'Migration': Because of the irreprable damage done to their culture and because of an influx of more heavily armed southern plains people the Northmen were slowly forced out of the Taigmair until the borders of the modern Taig were all but fixed and the Northmen were relegated to being a footnote in the history of the Taig (or so many thought.) The Plainsmen were of several differnt cultures. Some from the lands directly south of the Taig and others from the east across the sea. Their cultures were already well set and varied from each others by a wide margin. They all settled the land in large numbers. Some of the towns that you will recongize as still being around today are Ilagmem, Istarshot and Aigshot. These were not however the only towns that were settled in that time and many of them have since crumbled to the ages or have faded to obscurity. It was during this time that the tribal "Banners" system first appeared. It occured because peoples from the same tribe would split up to settle different areas so they would agree on a common signifyer for their particular people. Different banners abounded in the early days and some of the more prominant ones were, The Jumping Fish, The Wolf Rampant, The Bone Crown and The Three Bladed Flax. 'Council of the Gods:' The start of recorded history. Much of the actual dates written down for this time are incorrect and there are constant factual inconsistancies. What we are aware of is the fact that it is around the Council of the Gods era that the first Magii are encountered. It's understood from historical sources that initially these are either Aelfin or plainsmen trained by the Aelfin. These Magii are swiftly absorbed into society and make themselves useful performing such useful arts as extracting metal from stones, growing specifically shaped wood or curing people of illnesses. Generally these Magii are useful to society, the pace of development speeds up, alloys are created and grand works are completed. This is a time of enlightenment. Govermental systems are created and the cities all develop into more grand places. The Aelfin withdraw from society gradually until they are unseen in the Taigmair. It is belived that this is partly to do with a lack of suitable partners for them but is believed also to have been due to increasing differences of opinion between them and the Plainsmen Magii. The Geiss of Veiban This is the name of the declaration by a group of Magii in what is commonly recorded and CoG 112. This is arguably the date that CoG should start from seeing as the Geiss is the declaration of the Magii being the direct conduits of a council of gods who they serve. This declaration is initially dismissed by the majority of the populations in the cities. Over the course of a year a full scale insurgency breaks out between the Magii and the current rulers of the cities. Seeing their society falter around them the peoples of the towns rose up against the ruling banners and installed the Magii as protectors of the faith while setting up the whole of the Taigmair into a democratic state. The Veiban became the grand council of Magii who oversaw all decisions made by the peoples council. Life under the Veiban The Magii, now conduits of the gods, were expected by many to withdraw from public services. However the Veiban wanted to make sure that the Magii who served it were still grounded in reality and so for one out of every five years the Magii were indebted to public service and for another year of the five to research. So it was that, better organised, better trained and with more time being channeled into researching their ability the productivity of the Taig was increased massivly. Public projects such as water courses and baths were undertaken. The cities were great sprawling masses of stone architechture unwalled because of the lack of threats and the peoples confidence in the Magii. The Military of this time was essentially a police force and occasionally Magii would serve their public service with them using their tallents to catch criminals and dispense justice as was needed.